Saturday, June 28, 2008

A common complaint among Revit users is the number of dialog boxes which do not allow for resizing. All of the dialog boxes would benefit from this concept, being resizable that is...

David Kingham brought this utility to our attention at AUGI some time ago. It is called Resize Enable, that is provided free via this website, comes in. "RE" hacks its way into the user interface and application programming interface of windows to allow us to resize dialogs that haven't provided a native way to do so.

The following text is an excerpt from the readme file included when you download Resize Enable:

It's a very ugly system hack that sits in your system tray and attempts to make windows that can't usually be resized, resizeable...

This small hack is completely and utterly free and we accept no responsibility if it causes something to misbehave! It -=IS=- a HACK! Theoretically the worst that can happen is that a window's contents will go a little AWOL, but re-opening the window should sort it out....

If you want features added, or fancy contributing a bit of cash to keep us in Beer and Ben&Jerrys, or just want to let us know that you use it, then get in touch...

via email: orm at digitallis dot co dot uk

As nice as this is there are a couple drawbacks. First is that you need to be careful when resizing some dialogs, like the Review Warnings dialog. You have to adjust the size a tiny amount first or else the buttons don't resize properly and you can't see all of them anymore.

The second is that the project browser begins to display a "box-frame" around any view name that doesn't fit in the current width of the browser. This frame also offsets or distorts the display of the name and it makes it a little harder to determine if you have the correct view selected.

Now these setbacks are what happens on my pc and a couple others I've used it on but it is possible that your configuration won't mind? Your "mileage may vary".

Friday, June 27, 2008

A time consuming task for architects is the evaluation of the project's intended occupancy and its impact on egress from a building. It is possible to improve this process considerably with Revit by reporting data in Room schedules. However simply reporting this same information in a room tag isn't so trivial.

The fundamental problem is that we can not display data that we calculate inside the project in a tag yet. A tag family can not use the area value in an equation because it doesn't exist until you are in a project.

This FILE is an example of a strategy that reduces some of the drudgery of looking up data and having the numbers "crunched" but leaves us with manual data entry to get the information in tags so it can be display meaningfully in plan views as well as listed in a schedule. I did the work in this example but the inspiration goes to WLC Architects, where Scott Davis used to work. It is an imperfect example/solution but should serve as inspiration for your own approach to this issue.

Some of my thoughts about how this might change in Revit:

We need a way to tell Revit that a tag will use a project value, like area, once it is inserted and an object is tagged. A placeholder for AREA that will assume the true value when you tag a space but in the family itself substitutes a temporary value so the formula will "work".

Alternatively we need a system family tag type that can combine instance data like Area with other shared parameters to display calculations.

A third concept might be schedules that actually behave like tags and allow freeform placement of parameters and linework to look like a tag.

Yet another is to allow us to map one parameter to another within a project. Essentially allowing what we have done in these schedules manually to be done automatically, ala Excel...Cell A1 is equal to Cell J4.

In terms of value delivered, this sort of evaluation/calculation is a process that all firms go through to some extent. Evaluating occupied spaces and demonstrating how the design meets the code. This is a business problem Revit needs to help us resolve. Giving us greater ability to decide where and how information will be displayed is very important.

A client email and subsequent phone call yesterday advised me that they were "butting their heads into a wall" using the Keynote Feature with the linked files. Scott Davis, with Autodesk, was able to respond to them earlier than me because I was preoccupied elsewhere, thanks for being so responsive Scott!

The bottom line is that it is not possible to generate a keynote legend that includes elements in a linked file. I assume that this is because a keynote legend is able to "sense" what keynotes are in use on a sheet's views and generate the list of keynotes accordingly. I therefore assume that the linked file does not communicate this information to the host project. The only indication that this won't work or isn't possible is that the "Include Elements in Linked Files" check box is disabled in the schedule properties dialog.

The suggested workaround is to generate the relevant keynote legend in the linked file itself and then either capture the result as an image or dwg export which can be added to a view in the host project. Alternatively this documentation should/could, if possible, be done soley in the linked file instead. Unfortunately the manner in which clients link files together varies and it may not be a reasonable suggestion.

The request/issue has been logged with support accordingly but if this is a concern for your firm too it would serve all of us if you share your concern with support as well.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

The 70's fusion group Return to Forever returns to the road this month. They are appearing in 50 cities in the USA and Europe. This group helped define the jazz/rock/fusion genre of music. RtF combined the now well known musicians Chick Corea, Al DiMeola, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White into a super group of jazz/Latin virtuosos. This tour coincides with the newly released re-mastered album "Return to Forever: The Anthology".

They released four albums between 1973 and 1976, separated and then briefly toured again in 1983. Each of them has enjoyed prolific careers apart from Return to Forever which is partly to blame for the 25 years between tours.

I worked as a lighting tech on one tour date when they appeared at the Rochester Auditorium theater (NY State) during the 1983 tour. It was really a dual pleasure to work and see the show. A classic, "I'm getting paid to do this?" moment! I even got to chat with Al after the show for a couple minutes while we tore down the lighting gear.

I became aware of their work well after their initial heyday even though I was aware of their contempories Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report. I also greatly admired the Dixie Dregs, who were heavily influenced by Mahavishnu Orchestra too.

As a "part time" drummer (meaning I always had a day job) I always aspired to be able to play that sort of music even though realistically I am too lazy to do the work to reach that level. That and that my natural sweet spot or "talent" is, I think, contemporary rock.

I was introduced to Al Dimeola's solo work by the sound engineer that I worked with for a few years in the early 80's. I own nearly all of his (Al DiMeola's) albums and still frequently listen to them to this day. I've managed to see him perform a couple times over the years and I'd encourage anyone who enjoys this type of music to do so. His solo work is a collaboration with many of the finest musicians to ever play. Naturally I became curious about the other places he practiced his craft which led me "back" to Return to Forever.

Sadly their tour dates don't coincide with my travel plans so I'll miss out on this tour. It took them 25 years to get around to touring again, so if you are a fan, do your best to catch their show! Who knows how long it will take for the next one?

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Hiroshi Jacobs shared this with me today. He came across it and thought I'd find it interesting. I did and do and figured I might as well share it and let him be my guest writer today! You may be familiar with Hiroshi already, or at least the little Revit site he started with his brother...you've heard of RevitCity right? He currently works as a designer with RTKL.

Here is what he wrote:

If you dimension both sides of an opening family (door, window, etc.) it won’t let you append a text value above or below the dimension:

Notice the 4’-0” grayed out in the below box? Well that is the height of the window being dimensioned… There is a checkbox parameter in the dimension style type properties which allows you to show the height of the opening family in the dimension string.

That’s cool, but what if I don’t want to show the height, I want to add “R.O.” below the dimension string – I can’t unless I dimension to something other than both sides of the window.

There are a multitude of ways to open the properties dialog. The most obvious is to select an element and click the Properties Button. Of course you can use the Edit menu > Properties. Doing that should make you aware of the "PR" keyboard shortcut (stock shortcuts).

If you are a "Right Clicker"...then you can choose Element Properties from the list, it's the one all the way at the bottom. Don't be fooled into thinking that View Properties is what you want, "View" in this case isn't a verb.

A couple less obvious items are to use Windows Keyboard shortcut combinations, and there are a lot. I find that I just can't remember enough of them which means looking them up counters their effectiveness. Unless you can manage to replace something else you want to remember with some new ones?

You can use this combination, Alt+Enter to edit the Element properties of your current selection. Once open this combination, Ctrl+Enter will toggle back and forth between the Element and Type properties dialogs.

I should also mention that there is always the ALT key plus menu letters combinations. Depending on your Windows settings pressing the ALT key should display little underlined letters in the menu. Pressing ALT then the underlined letter will expand that menu and then you can do the same for the next level until you get where you want to go.

For properties it would go something like this: select somethingPress ALT, press E, press I (twice because I is shared with Resize and Properties)Press Enter, Press E to open Type Properties dialog.It is actually much quicker than it looks but no, I'm not suggesting it is faster than just typing PR (keyboard shortcut).

I have been advocating a number of workset habits for many years now. Do a search on this blog and see how many posts there are. Be prepared to read for a bit if you haven't already.

One of the things I've always suggested to people has been to automate the process of copying a local file and renaming it etc. This makes it easier, safer and predictable for the end users and tech support staff alike. Lately there has a been an "explosion" of firms doing this with more and more sophistication. The firms I first started pushing this idea on have nearly all finally done so or have been for some time now. In addition several members at AUGI have contributed their tools for others to use.

David Baldacchino has shared his both at AUGI and on his blog. David Kingham has shared his at AUGI too, in the same thread. You need to read through that thread carefully to find the final versions. Their contributions have both been built on AutoHotKey.

This is all great! Great for the general Revit community.

However I think it is long overdue that the Revit development team address the whole issue themselves. A Revit user once described the whole workset process as fragile. I first thought, "No! It's not fragile", but the word and its meaning slowly sunk into my pea brain. I've come to realize it is very fragile. Too many ways to screw up. Too many rules. Too many messages that require turning on our thinking cap or at least distracting us long enough to focus on Revit's needs instead of our own.

I'd like to encourage the Revit team to take a hard look at the entire workset workflow again now that they have so much more information available. Revisit from the typical user's perspective. Too much of software is written in such a way that it appeals to "techy" folks instead of people who just need to use the software to get something done. They want to know as little as they need to get "it" done!

Local Files, phooey. Who needs them? Why do we need to care? Make it invisible to us or at least invisible to the end user. Let the techy folks know what is going on behind the scenes.

Permission...we need to let people who know what they are doing do it and keep others out of harms way. A user permission strategy would provide that. Let us define who is a magnetic project manager (the person erases hard drives when he walks by) open a project but don't let him/her check stuff out or change things. Let us identify who the power user(s) is/are.

Make it easier to abandon changes. The need to close, don't relinquish, don't save, open the file, relinquish all mine...etc...is too many clicks and people start to look crosseyed at you when you explain why and how.

A friend half jokingly once told me that he believes that Autodesk employs a person identified as the "Complexifier". This person takes simple things and makes them complex to appeal to the techy in some of us. It is time that that the "complexifier" spends some quality time with a "simplifier" or two or three.

A long time ago I worked as a lighting tech for various touring bands. Every now and then I'd be standing behind the lighting console during a show and a fan would come up to me and tell me, "To turn up the vocals, NOW!" I suppose I could have told the fan, "I'm not the sound guy, he's over there!" Instead I'd just reach over to another part of the lighting console and push a slider up to full. Naturally this fan wouldn't notice the light coming on. Then I'd say, "Is that better?" The response was always something like, "Epithet Yeah!, COOL!. They'd go back to their fan friend and tell them they got it sorted.

I'm not suggesting we all need to be clueless and easily fooled but Revit ought to always strive to be pretty darn obvious. I know that the team does. I'm writing to encourage them to continue to "endeavor to persevere".

Saturday, June 21, 2008

A fellow AUGI member recently responded to a post that wanted help finding missing columns in the graphical column schedule (GCS). For a column to show up in the GCS it must occur at the intersection of two grids (keep in mind that RST 2009 permits off grid columns now though). You also need to be careful when placing/copy/pasting etc because a column may not "learn" which grid intersection it is supposed to live on.

I'll just throw out a couple of tips that may help boost your confidence in the GCS or at least help you verify that all of the columns are accounted for.

On most projects I will typically create a grid plan and a 3D column view that I can leverage to verify the accuracy of the GCS.

Grid Plan

The grid plan is simply a duplicate of your base level plan with the top and cut plane of the view range set above the uppermost extents of your building and the bottom and view depth set to unlimited or an offset below the lowermost extents of your building. In the VV dialog toggle off all of the categories in the model tab except for the Structural Columns. In the annotation tab turn off all of the categories except for the Grid and possibly the Dimensions depending on your preference.

3D Column View

This is simply a 3D view that has all of the model categories toggled off in the VV dialog except for the Structural Columns.

Putting These Views to Work

Once you have generated the GCS that you are going to place on your construction documents and formatted it as you wish do the following: Window select all of the columns in the GCS. Go to the Grid Plan and/or the 3D Column View. Select the Temporary Hide/Isolate Tool (Sunglasses) and choose Hide Element. What you are left with at this point is a view that will display any columns currently not accounted for in the GCS. Repeat as necessary until you have all columns scheduled. I will typically verify the GCS in this manor prior to every submittal.

As a side note: the grid plan is also very useful for selecting whole column assemblies (top to bottom) with a quick window selection for the purpose of moving, copying or deleting.

He also shares a little about the effectiveness of the GCS at this time.

While the GCS is still missing some functionality that I'd really like to have (ability to add lines, symbols, text, sections, callouts and dimensions, user defined fields for base plate, anchor bolts, and other notes/information, more control over grouping, and the ability to report shared coordinates for the levels to name a few ) the ability to generate and maintain a schedule of this type with a few minutes and a couple of clicks as opposed to the hours it used to take to generate and maintain I think you'll still come out ahead even working through some of the frustrating hiccups that tend to arise throughout a typical project.

Friday, June 20, 2008

This single little contribution of mine to the Revit community has been the most continuously requested thing I've done. Something so seemingly simple borne out of a fellow user's request.

I'm glad that this has been useful to so many. Now I've updated it for 2009 and added another tag as well as a "schedule as tag" approach to displaying the total length at the end of a path. You can now download it freely instead of having to email me to get it! Happy Exiting!

Thursday, June 19, 2008

I tracked down the example project file I referred to in my post about Scope Boxes the other day. If you are interested in it, I've made it available for download via that post and if you are in a hurry you can get it via this link now.

This might seem simple and a little detail but large projects using linked files have needed this ability for a long time! Something so important but so subtle and little in just another dialog box among many.

This little check box means that your linked exterior curtain wall project can provide the room bounding your core/shell/interior project needs so you can avoid creating lots and lots of room separation lines. I'm also interested to see if users can harness the feature to enhance Unit Plan workflow perhaps. Happy Linking!

This is a bit stale news but I thought I'd mention it nonetheless. Matt has announced the release of the updated routines they offered freely in the past for Revit 2008. If you found them useful before you can again with 2009! Thanks Matt and Avatech! Cheers!

In addition to me visiting this group's meeting on Friday, June 27th. The AUGI board is planning to arrange a social "pub crawl" at a local restaurant or brew pub. The location of this get together is to be determined at this time but I wanted to at least mention that we intend to do it.

It will be Friday, the 27th as well but after work, in the early evening. We hope that anyone who is interested in meeting with the board to talk AUGI, Autodesk...AutoCAD...Revit...whatever...will come out and "hang with the board"!

We are all looking forward to it! I will post again when a location is settled.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

A subtle improvement to this feature exists in the latest release. When you select an element which has a warning associated with it an Options Bar button appears which permits the user to see the warning.

This is a welcome improvement to be sure.

We can also export the warnings to an external file. This is something I posted about in the past and I'm grateful that it has been added.

Phil Read has a blog finally and he recently posted a succinct summary of issues and ideas related to making the warnings that Revit stores in response to a teams work...work better. His ideas are well written and provide insight into the depth of his experience working with many firms over the years. No surprise honestly. Naturally it is easy to agree with his assertions because they make sense and match with most if not all user's experience.

There seems, to me, to be an epidemic of surveys. I must be wearing some secret Post-It note on my back saying, "Send this guy surveys". I can't go more than a couple of days without getting a request to complete a survey. Today I got one from Autodesk asking me to rate my relationship with my reseller. Last night I got two from the last two hotels I stayed in. Last week our car received its routine maintenance and sure enough we received both an email request to complete a survey and a follow up phone survey.

When I visit my car dealer or visit a hotel they seem intent on letting you know that you'll be getting a survey, as if that's a great thing for me, and that they really want to make sure I give them the highest score. So the conversation goes something like this, "Mr. Stafford we want you to know that you'll get a survey via email and it is really important to us that you give us all "Fives". If there is any reason you can't do that please let us know right away so we can fix the problem."

Maybe I'm old fashioned but isn't asking for praise a bit awkward? If I were to ask my past bosses, "Hey! I need you to fill out a survey and give me all fives!" I'd probably have been laughed at (nevermind what that says about me). What sort of reliable data is a survey that is first foisted upon the recipient and then the added emphasis on providing a perfect score?

The hotel cleaning person last night put a nice card on the center of my desk, XYZ Hotel's "Caught a person doing their best" form. I suppose this meant I was supposed to fill out that this person was doing an excellent job at doing their job? Are we supposed to catch someone we never see doing a great job? If my room looked just like it did for the last three times I was there is that excellent or above the call of duty? How many of these forms do I have to fill out? What about the poor person(s) I haven't encountered? Do I need to fill out generic forms saying, "I'm really sorry that I didn't catch "xxx" doing his/her job well today. I'm sure they are really doing their best and I was just preoccupied and missed it!"

Last week I needed help tracking someone down at the hotel and I couldn't remember their last name. The person at the front desk was awesome at helping me figure out how he could find them and still not divulge any private information. He also was really helpful all week for a variety of reasons. He deserved a card because I interacted with him and he did something out of the ordinary, more than his job description might actually say he needed to do.

Six months or so ago I even got a call from a woman in Berlin wanting me to do a survey. I agreed because her German accent was so strong that I couldn't help wonder how we'd manage get through the survey. I literally had to ask her to repeat every question and I wasn't trying to be a jerk either.

So I'm not replying to surveys anymore, I'm protesting. Call me obstinate. Leave me alone! I want my car company to leave me alone to enjoy the car. I don't want to get telephone calls to conduct a survey that won't, under any circumstance, give up. They call and call and call and call. They call at all hours. I programmed a special ring on my phone for their number just so I'd know it was them calling. So far I haven't given in but they are calling from another number now!

So would you mind taking a brief survey on what you think of surveys?

David posted this at his blog about working in a Central File (a little reference back to Revit) and it describes my feelings so well that I thought I'd steal it and use it here! Thanks for reading!

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Last night I read a post by Jay B. Zallan regarding scope boxes plus I just went through this subject with a few folks yesterday.

All of which reminded me that I wrote something ages ago while I was working at WATG. The pdf's are shared in the AUGI Tutorials forum (have to login to download them).

Here's the preface of the pdf:

The purpose of a Scope Box is to limit visibility of datum to a specific portion of your project.

Scope Boxes actually go a little further by:

• Automatically controlling the extents of a view’s crop region and orienting the crop region to be aligned with the scope box boundary.• Automatically and globally affecting the length of “their” levels, grids and reference lines when the scope box boundary is changed.• Effecting change vertically as well as horizontally (you can isolate specific floors or areas within a bldg)• Hiding annotation for other related views (Sections/Elevations) if the cut plane of that view is not within or does not cross the scope box for that view.

Three concepts apply to scope boxes: (Also see the Sample Scope Box project file)• Creating a Scope box• Applying a Scope box to datum and views• Controlling the visibility of Scope Boxes

I too really like using them to manage a consistent cropped boundary for multiple floor plan views.

Monday, June 16, 2008

I get to attend this local user group meeting a week from Friday because the AUGI board is meeting in Portland at the Autodesk offices in Lake Oswego. I'll be sneaking out of the meeting for a little lunch time visit as a representative of the board. Here's the announcement they shared with me.

The next Portland Revit User Group meeting will be Friday, June 27th, 2008. Be sure to join us for a great presentation and some good food thanks to IMAGINiT! And this meeting will be extra special, as we will have AUGI Board member & Reviteer Steve Stafford in attendance, speaking a bit about AUGI and adding to the general discussion.

Please be sure to RSVP by end-of-day Tuesday, June 24th if you plan to attend, so we have an accurate number for lunch.

What: Portland Revit User Group

Why: To create a local community where Revit users can learn from their peers, build technical skills, exchange ideas, resolve challenges, share successes, and elevate their capabilities with the Revit suite of products.

Now in it's fourth year, the Revit Technology Conference has already established itself as the premiere BIM-based event in the Asia Pacific region.

Following the success of our Roadshow in 2007 (Sydney, Brisbane, Auckland, Melbourne, and Perth), the RTC Committee have pleasure in inviting you and your team to attend the Annual Conference to be held in Brighton Beach, Sydney. The Conference aims to draw attendees from throughout Australia and New Zealand, as well as other Asia Pacific regions.

The 2008 Annual Conference is to be held Thursday 26 June – Saturday 28 June at the Novotel Brighton Beach, Sydney.

I had the opportunity to meet Elio Scotti, President of BEKA USA last week. His company sells radiant cooling/heating "mats" or micro capillary tubes. Aside from the fact that it is an interesting technology, I mention this because they have created a Revit Family for their product.

There is just one family and it is intended for Revit Architecture users for layout/design consideration. It is resizable via grips and it is a representation of its proportions. They are considering the MEP implications for Revit. I'm sure they would be receptive to any suggestions that Revit users offer. If you use this sort of system as part of your "green" goals (that's all of us right?) then be sure to check it out. Either way...check it out!

To download the family look for the CAD Files/Downloads link at the top of the page and choose the Revit link. It will run a script to download the file. Here's an image from part of their slide show presentation available from their site.

This product poses an interesting challenge to Revit because it can technically follow nearly any contoured surface. Making a family that could do that is probably beyond a practical solution at present.

If you are like me you've been slowly digging into the new Help documentation for Revit 2009 "ASMEP"? Then you have already noticed that a lot of effort has been applied to it. In some areas a complete rewrite (family editor for example) and in others some serious sanding and polish. If you aren't like me, don't worry about that...just make sure you do check it out!

Overall I find it much better. I'm not sure it is really possible to make it perfect or perhaps even great (for everyone). If it were then we wouldn't need books? Naturally incorporating more short tutorial videos is a recurring wishlist item. With the consistent use of them on Kyle's blog I imagine we'll see the addition of such effort in the future.

To the unsung documentation people...you are now sung! You've got my thanks! Keep up the good work!

This is really really...really subtle but I find it funny and interesting nonetheless. For the longest time the message that Revit offered when saving a project file for the first time after enabling worksets read this way (Emphasis highlighted).

In 2009 this has been caught and dealt with. It now reads.

I figure that since I've been pointing it out for so long to others that I might as well publicly acknowledge it is fixed. I'm no English major so I should be careful "throwing stones" eh?

With 2009 comes a new Label Dialog which permits the joining of multiple parameters into a single label. In addition you can include a suffix and/or prefix. This provides a graceful way to add the prefix "EL:" to a Level annotation, something that wasn't so graceful in the past. Here's an example of the new dialog with the prefix added to my label in a Level Head family.

Friday, June 13, 2008

This information is posted at REZINE.net, a HVAC Engineering Information dedicated site. It is very nice to see this happening more often!

Software

YORK EQUIPMENT NOWAVAILABLE ON REVIT

We are pleased to announce that all the York rooftop package units from 3 to 5 tons are now in the Revit families and ready to be downloaded in your software. This tool will save you and your company hours of CAD work. The rooftop units have been completed with accessories, real time dimensions, voltage, capacities, etc. The 6.5 to 12.5 tons are in design and should be ready to be downloaded anytime now! Please let us know if you have any problems installing this package. Enjoy!

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Tonight I had the opportunity to attend the Revit user group in Phoenix. It is organized by Michael MacVittie with Allen + Philp Architects/Interiors and the Phoenix AIA office is good enough to be the host location.

Eric and Rob from the SmithGroup presented a very nice discussion on their experience using Revit for their multi-discipline projects. Eric, an architect, focused on Revit Architecture while Rob, an engineer, discussed Revit MEP. They displayed a nice variety of project images and provided an overview of the way that their process has evolved since beginning to use Revit. It was a even-handed discussion of both the "highs" and the "lows" of their experience.

I'm glad that I could attend (my class let me leave a little early!) and see that a vibrant group of Revit users are meeting regularly to share their experiences. I also want to thank Mark Sever of the Sever Design Group for letting me know about the meeting and for making sure I was able to get there!

If you are in the Phoenix area, make sure you attend! If you need help reaching Michael, let me know!

A subtle feature in the "New Plan" ("New RCP" for ceiling plans) dialog proved quite confusing to new users. In 2009 it has changed. This is the one I'm referring to.

This is the dialog that appears when you choose View menu > New > Floor Plan. In the past all the levels of the project were displayed in the floor/ceiling plan views window. If you selected a level that already had a plan view associated with it and left the check in the box...no view, no message, no nothing. It just looked like Revit didn't do anything. It didn't...because the check box says, "do not duplicate existing views". A little cryptic.

Now when you look at the plan view window only the levels that don't have a view associated with them are displayed. When you uncheck the check box all the levels of the project are displayed. Much better, even though I was confused at first for the opposite reason, irony.

The concept is simple, check it when you want the tag to align itself with the component you tag. Example...a door. Works nicely.

Yet when you attempt to use it with other categories you can check it all night long and it does nothing...example a light fixture.

Some tags are hard wired to not use it while others are. We either need a list of the categories it is intended to work with or better yet, make it work for all content! It is so very frustrating for users to get so close yet have something like this trip them up!

"Heads Up", noticed today that the Space Tag family does not get the Leader Arrowhead parameter like its "brother" the Room Tag. I haven't had a chance to check the new build to see if it is fixed and I won't have time to do so till this weekend. Hopefully it won't cause too much trouble for MEP users.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

A new feature in Revit MEP 2009 makes it a little easier to define which discipline a new view is assigned by default. The Settings menu > Options > General tab provides a new View Options frame which provides a way to choose which discipline to use as a default. See attached image.

Seems to me that Plumbing is a bit short changed still with no primary discipline of its own?

There is only one download for Revit MEP as it is only sold as a "suite" but there are two downloads for Revit Architecture, standalone and "suite". The links take you to the "choose your language" page.

This is Architecture enhancements in the web update list at Autodesk.

Improves performance when modifying customer visibility settings for linked files, when many volumes exist that are bound by the linked file.Improves the plotting consistency of certain components that are placed over hatched elements in coordination and architectural discipline views.Rooms will now export Revit internal parameters for IFC.When rendering, the progress bar reports correct percent complete.“Intensity” on Decal Types dialog was changed to “Brightness” to match Help documentation.Spot elevation with Display Elevation = Top & Bottom Elevation will now report the correct bottom elevation for sloped elements.In plan view with medium or fine detail level, spot elevations now report the correct top or bottom elevation of a beam that is joined to a column.Improves stability when changing the visibility of a link in a view template.“Downlight – Spot” light family no longer has duplicate Tilt Angle parameter.Lights that were in a light group that was deleted are no longer controlled by the deleted light group; instead they are controlled by the Ungrouped Lights status.Improves the ability to enter custom DPI value in the Render dialog.Improves stability when exporting to CAD formats.Improves stability when closing SteeringWheels.Improves stability when adding elements to a group.Families that contain arrayed voids will now function properly in the project.Improves stability for users with non-English operating systems when using the Open/Save dialog.Notes created in Revit for a DWF markup object will now propagate to the DWF after selecting publish.Enabling daylight portals will now affect the rendered appearance.Spotting on interior renderings with many internal light sources no longer occurs.Improves appearance of decals using cut-outs.Corrects “Unable to Start” error when starting the application.Model lines now remain in the correct design option when split.Structural columns will now have a higher priority when joined to non-bearing and shear walls.For sweeps on an arc wall, you now have the option to change sweep returns.Restores some structural components in SouthAsiaLibrary content bundle.

This is the MEP list:

Improves performance when modifying customer visibility settings for linked files, when many volumes exist that are bound by the linked file.Improves stability when exporting complex views to AutoCAD DWG format, when the hidden lines in those views have a large gap width.United Kingdom content is now included in the English installer.Improves stability when editing a family in the System Editor.Improves stability when upgrading previous release files that contain certain schedule configurations.IES light fixture information exported to the IES now contains correct direction information.Improves performance when opening views with multiple unconnected systems.1 and 2 pole panels can now be assigned to 3 Phase Distribution Systems.Wires in a view no longer impact the display of color fills.Wires are no longer trimmed according to the extents of the light source geometry.Light fixture preview images do not include the light source geometry.Improves the plotting consistency of certain components that are placed over hatched elements in coordination and architectural discipline views.Improves consistency of panel schedule column sizes when panel name is changed.Duct and pipe accessories can now change types without disconnecting from duct and pipe segments.Rooms will now export Revit internal parameters for IFC.When rendering, the progress bar reports correct percent complete.“Intensity” on Decal Types dialog was changed to “Brightness” to match Help documentation.Spot elevation with Display Elevation = Top & Bottom Elevation will now report the correct bottom elevation for sloped elements.In plan view with medium or fine detail level, spot elevations now report the correct top or bottom elevation of a beam that is joined to a column.Improves stability when changing the visibility of a link in a view template.“Downlight – Spot” light family no longer has duplicate Tilt Angle parameter.Lights that were in a light group that was deleted are no longer controlled by the deleted light group; instead they are controlled by the Ungrouped Lights status.Improves the ability to enter custom DPI value in the Render dialog.Improves stability when exporting to CAD formats.Improves stability when closing SteeringWheels.Improves stability when adding elements to a group.Families that contain arrayed voids will now function properly in the project.Improves stability for users with non-English operating systems when using the Open/Save dialog.Notes created in Revit for a DWF markup object will now propagate to the DWF after selecting publish.Enabling daylight portals will now affect the rendered appearance.Spotting on interior renderings with many internal light sources no longer occurs.Improves appearance of decals using cut-outs.Corrects “Unable to Start” error when starting the application.Model lines now remain in the correct design option when split.For sweeps on an arc wall, you now have the option to change sweep returns.Improves the fidelity of printing and exporting of hidden lines shown in structural and MEP views.

Improves stability during upgrade when line-based and structural framing families with geometry containing planes are almost parallel to the X axis. Floor slab thickness at cantilever of metal deck profile bound to layer above is now correct. Reduces the recurrence of getting “circular chain of references” error messages when braces are usedthe top and bottom chords of an API assembled truss. Improves joist girder families and tags. Improves the fidelity of printing and exporting of hidden lines shown in structural and MEP views. Section cut through joined beams at a column will now display properly in the beams cross-section. Line pattern of a level type for the default metric structural templates is now changed to "Center" from "Solid". Elevation value of Level 1 in structural metric templates no longer displays as "-0". Some pre-loaded UK metal deck profiles have been renamed with manufacturer product names in the Structural Analysis-DefaultGBRENU.rte. Restores some structural components in SouthAsiaLibrary content bundle.

Platform enhancement

Improves the plotting consistency of certain components that are placed over hatched elements in coordination and architectural discipline views. Spot elevation with Display Elevation = Top & Bottom Elevation will now report the correct bottom elevation for sloped elements. In plan view with medium or fine detail level, spot elevations now report the correct top or bottom elevation of a beam that is joined to a column. Improves stability when changing the visibility of a link in a view template. Improves stability when exporting to CAD formats. Improves stability when closing SteeringWheels. Improves stability when adding elements to a group. Families that contain arrayed voids will now function properly in the project. Improves stability for users with non-English operating systems when using the Open/Save dialog. Notes created in Revit for a DWF markup object will now propagate to the DWF after selecting publi• Corrects Model lines now remain in the correct design option when split. Join order changed for structural columns and non-bearing walls. For sweeps on an arc wall, you now have the option to change sweep When rendering, the progress bar reports correct percent complete. Lights that were in a light group that was deleted are no longer controlled instead they are controlled by the Ungrouped Lights status.Improves the ability to enter custom DPI value in the Render dialogEnabling daylight portals will now affect the rendered appearance. Spotting on interior renderings with many internal light sources no longer occurs.

API enhancement

Parameter binding performance has been improved. The Join Type method has been implemented for the Locationcurve of structural members. Mullion LocationCurves are now accessible through the API. External programs may now suppress VSTA startup warning messages. The built-in parameter MATERIAL_PARAM_TRANSPARENCY now returns the correct set value.

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Phil Read recently announced, in a thread at AUGI, that he has joined HNTB. This may come as a surprise because for several years he has been a very public "face" of Revit for Autodesk as a speaker at Autodesk University and as a highly sought after consultant for Autodesk Consulting.

As a consultant, I can relate to the tug of doing "real" work versus helping others with their "real" work. There is satisfaction in both but the grass always seems greener "over there". In the past I had the pleasure of working with HNTB as a member of Autodesk's consulting team and I can attest to the lure of very interesting and complex projects.

I'm certain HNTB considers themselves very fortunate to have lured him out of the consulting life. I'm taking this moment to add to the others who have congratulated him on his new "life"! Cheers and as he often writes..."All the best!" See you at AU!

He also has started a blog...finally...been bugging him to for three years...it is called Architechure.

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